sing at last with a quiet little sigh). I will get them for
you. They are in my room. (She turns to the door.)

NAPOLEON. I shall accompany you, madame.

LADY (drawing herself up with a noble air of offended delicacy).I
cannot permit you, General, to enter my chamber.

NAPOLEON. Then you shall stay here, madame, whilst I have your chamber
searched for my papers.

LADY (spitefully, openly giving up her plan). You may save yourself the
trouble. They are not there.

NAPOLEON. No: I have already told you where they are. (Pointing to her
breast.)

LADY (with pretty piteousness). General: I only want to keep one little
private letter. Only one. Let me have it.

NAPOLEON (cold and stern). Is that a reasonable demand, madam?

LADY (encouraged by his not refusing point blank). No; but that is why
you must grant it. Are your own demands reasonable? thousands of lives
for the sake of your victories, your ambitions, your destiny! And what
I ask is such a little thing. And I am only a weak woman, and you a
brave man. (She looks at him with her eyes full of tender pleading and
is about to kneel to him again.)

NAPOLEON (brusquely). Get up, get up. (He turns moodily away and takes
a turn across the room, pausing for a moment to say, over his shoulder)
You're talking nonsense; and you know it. (She gets up and sits down in
almost listless despair on the couch. When he turns and sees her there,
he feels that his victory is complete, and that he may now indulge in a
little play with his victim. He comes back and sits beside her. She
looks alarmed and moves a little away from him; but a ray of rallying
hope beams from her eye. He begins like a man enjoying some secret
joke.) How do you know I am a brave man?

LADY (amazed). You! General Buonaparte. (Italian pronunciation.)

NAPOLEON. Yes, I, General Bonaparte (emphasizing the French
pronunciation).

LADY. Oh, how can you ask such a question? you! who stood only two days
ago at the bridge at Lodi, with the air full of death, fighting a duel
with cannons across the river! (Shuddering.) Oh, you DO brave things.

NAPOLEON. So do you.

LADY. I! (With a sudden odd thought.) Oh! Are you a coward?

NAPOLEON (laughing grimly and pinching her cheek). That is the one
question you must never ask a soldier. The sergeant asks after the
recruit's height, his age, his wind, his limb, but never after his
courage. (He gets up and walks about with his hands behind him and his
head bowed,